Ideas

Janetzky, Kurt

Impossible?

Kurt Janetzky challenges the notion of the “impossible” in brass playing, arguing that technical limits evolve and that demanding repertoire—past or present—should never be dismissed as unplayable.

Krol, Bernhard

Why pretend to be Mozart?

The concerto’s cadenza: copy of style — or bold but true?

Should a cadenza imitate the past—or speak in today’s voice? Bernhard Krol questions the tradition of stylistic imitation and argues for cadenzas that bridge past and present with authenticity.

Damm, Peter

Why pretend to be Mozart?

Reply to Bernhard Krol

Should a cadenza imitate Mozart? Peter Damm argues for stylistic fidelity without imitation—at the heart of a debate with Bernhard Krol.

Willener, Alfred

Montreux 1976 - First international brass congress

Montreux 1976: beyond the spectacle. Between virtuosity, ego, and isolation, Alfred Willener questions the very meaning of the brass world.

Bobo, Roger

Comments on the First International Brass Congress

Montreux 1976

National styles or personal voice? Roger Bobo finds in Montreux that individuality prevails—yet notes the absence of key traditions.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Between tradition and innovation: brass players must move beyond routine and embrace new musical directions to remain relevant in the music of tomorrow.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Mouthpiece, instrument, practice—what’s really holding you back? A reflection on doubt, competition, and finding the inner balance that shapes true musicianship.

Fenigstein, Victor

Scraps of Thoughts and Memories concerning “Passages” for trumpet and strings

Between waiting and movement, Passages reimagines soloist and orchestra—inviting exploration, listening, and the acceptance of the unexpected.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Is sound something you control—or something you become? Jean-Pierre Mathez challenges technique, fashion, and pedagogy: sonority is a lifelong conquest of freedom.

Bobo, Roger

From the pen of Roger Bobo

A bold statement from Roger Bobo: limiting yourself to your instrument’s repertoire is musical imprisonment — true musicianship begins beyond boundaries.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Research shapes music. This editorial highlights key scholars, welcomes new contributors, and calls on readers to support Brass Bulletin’s growing international reach.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

More than a magazine: a call to musicians. This editorial reveals Brass Bulletin’s mission—to inspire, connect, and survive through the support of its readers.

Agrell, Jeffrey

Zen and the Art of Horn playing

Beyond technique: Jeffrey Agrell explores the clash between intellect and intuition—arguing that true musical expression begins where analysis ends.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

A life that shaped a century: Jean-Pierre Mathez introduces the extraordinary rise of Maurice André—an artist whose brilliance transformed the modern trumpet.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Virtuosity is framed less as method than perception, opposing formula-driven teaching and pointing to attentive listening as the ground for technical clarity and artistic control

Stevens, Thomas

The Trumpet in the USA

Across competitions, teaching and equipment in the U.S., trumpet practice exposes clashing ideas of musicality, raising the question of shared standards beyond national styles

Agrell, Jeffrey

Zen and the Art of Horn playing

Between breath, reflex, and attention, Jeffrey Agrell links Zen practice with the physical and mental habits that shape brass playing.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

At the dawn of the 1980s, Brass Bulletin challenges institutional habits, avant-garde rigidity and brass pedagies through a direct appeal to younger musicians.

Agrell, Jeffrey

Zen and the Art of Horn playing

From meditation to distance running, horn playing becomes a way of quieting mental noise, linking breath, concentration, and daily life.

Ricquier, Michel

The use of the mind in instrumental performance

Relaxation, concentration and mental imagery reshape technical practice, linking self-confidence and instrumental control beyond physical training alone.

Sluchin, Benny

A Trombone Martyr

Auguste Léonard de la Tuilerie

A Paris apothecary turned trombone evangelist challenges 19th-century musical habits, imagining the slide trombone as the future voice of harmony.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Progress by Stages

Between technical routine and lived experience, musical growth emerges through setbacks, observation and the gradual shaping of an individual voice.

Ringger, Rolf Urs

Serious Music this Side of the Ghetto

Between Darmstadt serialism and neo-tonality, the place of serious music in society is questioned through Berg, Schönberg and the post-war avant-garde.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

10 Years of Brass Bulletin

Ten years after its launch, a small specialist publication reaches readers in more than sixty countries, reflecting how a shared artistic community took shape across borders.

Ricquier, Michel

The subconscious, a useful friend

From yogic practices to auto-hypnosis, mental conditioning and visualisation are linked to performance, self-control, and the body's hidden responses.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Beyond technique and instruction, musical growth depends on trusted relationships, where friendship becomes both a measure of progress and a safeguard against isolation.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

International Competitions - Time, a perishable commodity...

From competition juries to the accelerating pace of modern life, Jean-Pierre Mathez questions the judgments and pressures shaping musicians and their careers

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

As music becomes increasingly industrialized, Jean-Pierre Mathez argues for restoring local musical communities where composers, performers and audiences shape a shared identity.

Willener, Alfred

The Haydn Trumpet Concerto

Haydn’s trumpet concerto becomes a study of manuscript detail, performance choices, and the fragile ways listeners receive a familiar work.

Agrell, Jeffrey

Listening

Musical listening begins where judgment ends, as Jeffrey Agrell questions habits of criticism, recordings and expectation that shape every performance.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

As costs rose and ambitions grew, an editorial from 1983 captures the fragile balance between sustaining an international brass journal and preserving its vision.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

When careers pause and certainty fades, real progress begins in private, where discipline, friendship and chamber music reshape what it means to be a musician.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Musical Piracy

Plagiarism, Photocopying

Long before digital piracy, publishers and performers were already confronting plagiarism, photocopying and blurred artistic ownership across the brass world.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

One magazine disappeared as another opened its pages, turning economic necessity into a rare act of editorial solidarity that reshaped the brass press.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Mass media, record-industry economics and the return of cornet virtuosity collide in a sharp warning about fashion, manipulation and musical independence.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Music teaching depends on more than routine: in 1984, Jean-Pierre Mathez argues that living contact with artists keeps transmission open to new generations.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Between disciplined practice and creative folly, musicianship emerges where scales and systems give way to imagination, instinct and the unsettling freedom to think.

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Editorial

Bloomington’s brass congress raises an awkward question: can international exchange flourish when one country’s institutions, calendar and priorities set the terms?

Mathez, Jean-Pierre

Wynton Marsalis

Interview

At 26, Wynton Marsalis confronts jazz education, popular culture and artistic integrity with convictions as uncompromising as his approach to the trumpet.